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Alternative Ignition Mechanisms

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Newbert

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I was disassembling my Flintlock today just to familiarize myself with the thing better and I had a thought. In a muzzeloader the barrel is really the "Core" of the device. As in, its the thing that matters most in terms of safety, accuracy, etc.

Since the barrel is fully removable there isn't really any reason I couldn't break out the chisels and fashion another stock to slot it into.

Obviously the "lock" mechanism is in itself a piece of important engineering but if you were really in a pinch you could really use anything to ignite a pan and the primary charge.

So I thought about some odd or interesting ideas:

Slow Match Lever
You could very easily use pins and strips of metal to fashion a real old school slow match mechanism to dip into a pan. It wouldn't require high tensions springs or any complex movement

Reverse Flintlock
Modern day "Flint" is actually the alloy Ferrocerium which sparks easily whenever a piece of metal abrates it. You could make a lock that strikes at a "frizzen" of Ferro Rod with a piece of metal. It would be possibly cheaper and simpler to replace as they sell them cheap all over. The sparks are much hotter as theyre magnesium but it wouldn't matter as much as jts your own materials

Piezoelectric Sparker
What if the ignition source never actually leaves the pan, but only activates with the pressure of the trigger pull. A BBQ lighter generates tiny high voltage sparks in this manner. You could prime the pan, and then click it to fire

Electric Safety Match
There is probably some danger in a slow match. True you need to blow on it to get it ready to ignite but still a burning cord is a bit dodgy. What if instead of that you had a very thin wire that heats up with the activation of a battery before firing? This would make the gun safer to handle and load as the eire would cool rapidly when not charged

These are all interesting projects I thought of. Normally id say of course "tinkering" with a gun is a BIG TIME bad idea if you dont know what you're doing, but given the fact these are essentially alternative ways of just utilizing a standard barrel that is made to the correct and safe specifications I think they would be fine.
 
i think i and my sidekick in crime and foolishness tried most if not all of the cockamamie ideas put forth above about 70 years ago. surprisingly we both still have ten fingers(ok make that 9 1/2) ten toes, both eyes, though vision is much degraded, both ears, both of which are just ornamental, most teeth, even if my partner puts his in a glass at night.
every idea above has been tried by every new generation of BP addicts.
and " Flints " are not the alloy Ferrocerium actually. if you were a real flintlock shooter you would know this.
but by all means experiment. may actually discover something useful.
me, i will just keep tripping the sear and watch the smoke erupt from both ends.
 

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